It is common practice for service companies to loan or lease their property to consumers. Some examples include cable and satellite television service providers, internet service providers, telephone service providers, and the like. In the case of cable and satellite television service providers, the provider loans and/or leases its customers satellite/cable television boxes, through which the television signal can be received. In the case of satellite television providers, companies also loan satellite dish hardware to their customers.
A problem for such companies is theft and or misuse of their property by their customers. In some cases, customers remove a company's property without permission, and use it in another location, thus breaking their service contract. In other cases, customers simply steal the company's property altogether. Thus far, companies have not had a way of tracking their property to find out whether it has been removed or stolen.
Another issue companies face is how to improve customer service. Traditionally, if a customer needs customer service, they must call the company. The customer is then put on hold or run through a series of automated answering machines which try to gather information about the customer's problem. Current customer service programs, including customer service provided by cable and satellite television providers, can be quite frustrating to use for customers and inefficient for companies.